The Crow reboot casts its Eric Draven and Shelly Webster

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The Crow creator extraordinaire James O'Barr was attending the Lexington Comic and Toy Convention over the weekend when Dread Central's Jason "Jinx" Jenkins caught up with him and managed to grab a scoop concerning the casting of the upcoming Crow remake's very own Eric Draven.

After weeks of rumors and speculations in the wake of Luke Evans' (The Hobbit, Dracula Untold) departure from the project, O'Barr has officially confirmed that it will be Boardwalk Empire's Jack Huston to don the makeup that will transform him into the tragic and iconic character. "Jack Huston has definitely been cast," O'Barr said, adding that he was "really happy with that choice" and that the upcoming flick "will shoot in a couple of months."

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Back in February, O'Barr had been actively pushing for Being Human's Sam Witwer to play the role of Eric, a murdered man who comes back to life, thanks to a crow, in order to get bloody revenge on those who killed him and his girlfriend/fiancee Shelly Webster, who will be played by Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay. Even though we would have loved to see Witwer in the role, the former Battlestar Galactica actor has not the star power (yet) needed to carry the movie on his shoulders, making it very risky for the studio to endorse him as the film's lead.

On the other hand, Jack Huston (American Hustle) is the perfect choice for the studio, since the actor's star is on the rise without him being enough of a big star yet to demand a huge paycheck: He'll play the lead role in that upcoming Ben-Hur movie remake set to be released in 2016, and we'll get to see him get his Jane Austen on as George Wickham in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies sometime this year. Huston was also in the running at one point to play Marvel's very own Sorceror Supreme in Doctor Strange before Benedict Cumberbatch ultimately nabbed the role. So, yeah, there's all that, and the fact that Jack Huston is an extremely talented actor and a fine choice to play the lead in The Crow. Don't believe us? Check him out in Boardwalk Empire, where he was utterly mesmerizing in the role of Richard Harrow, another tragic and tortured character.

James O'Barr also confirmed yet again that the new movie will be an adaptation of his graphic novel, and that it'll be quite different from the 1994 movie that starred the late Brandon Lee, which is still a cult fave among the fans today. Corin Hardy (The Hallow) is set to helm the reboot, with a script by Cliff Dorfman (Warrior). O'Barr added that the cast will be entirely British, and that the crow will actually speak to Eric, as in the comics. He also revealed that if a sequel is to be made, it will feature a female lead.

Are you guys excited by the casting of Jack Huston as Eric Draven in Relativity's The Crow remake? What do you think of the choice of Jessica Brown Findlay as his leading lady?